whence in process of time, they have been driven out by new colonies of Scythians and Germans, and banished among the northern rocks; in like manner as the an- cient inhabitants of Britain have been dif- poffeffed by the Saxons of the greateſt and moft pleaſant part of their ifland, and con- ftrained to conceal themfelves among the mountains in Wales, where to this day, they retain their language, and preferve fome traces of their ancient manners. whether the Finlanders were formerly the intire poffeffors of Scandinavia, or were only fomewhat more numerous than they are at prefent, it is very certain that this nation hath been eſtabliſhed there from the earlieft ages, and hath always differed from the other inhabitants of the north, by fea- tures fo ftrong and remarkable, that we muft acknowledge their original to be as different from that of the others, as it is utterly unknown to us. The language of the Finns hath nothing in common with that of any neighbouring people, neither doth it refemble any dialect of the ancient ‘Gothic,’ Celtic or Sarmatian tongues, which were formerly the only ones that prevailed among the barbarous people of Europe. The learned, who have taken the pains to compare the great Finland bible printed at Abo, with a multitude of others,
